5 Responses to Armed & Dangerous

In the last couple of toons, you have again taken the position, at least graphically, that the split in the American people is pretty much equal. And, once again, I take the position that it is anything but. Whether it’s Uncle Sam’s two arms in this example, or the equal in number and equally mad mobs of Countdown, it has long been your, and the media in general’s, attitude of ‘fair play’.

Our collective opinions on a wide range of prescient issues are not even close to balanced. For instance:

The overwhelming majority put health care as their #1 issue and Medicare for all garners a 65% approval.
On abortion, only 33% believe Roe was decided wrongly.
A clear majority think the latest tax law benefits corporations disproportionately.
Also in a clear majority is our good opinion of the FBI, our need for environmental protections and the fact that we are causing global warming. 68% agree that our teachers aren’t paid enough and 70% were for Obama’s nuke treaty with Russia. Gun laws need to be more strict, says over 60%. Same-sex marriage 67%. White supremacist views are wrong- 83%, Social Security is good and leave it alone-80%, and we don’t spend enough on our roads and bridges-62%.

So, if we are to have an intelligent conversation about the major issues we face today, we first need to start with a factual representation of where we all stand on those issues and stop portraying the typically minuscule opposition to our position as anything nearing equal in number. They are not.

Uncle Sam would need a special-made straightjacket which accounts for his left arm being strong and vibrant and his right being a baby’s arm with an apple in it. Likewise, in Countdown, those 20 yelling “Fascist” would be confronted by about 3 of an opposing view.

If your claims were true, Democrats would be mopping the floor with the party in power. Instead, all indications point to another razor thin stand off, with the D’s possibly retaking the House and the R’s holding, and possibly adding to their majority in the Senate. I don’t trust most polls after the 2016 fiasco, so we’ll just have to wait for the election returns to see who’s closer to the truth.
I really don’t think the Democrats have done themselves any favors by pushing physical confrontation with their adversaries. As an independent on the sidelines, they all look like lunatics to me.

Notwithstanding that none of those claims are ‘mine’, your friend, Teresita, kinda’ gets it; polls of these kinds are typically asked of all Americans, as opposed to only likely voters. It’s also my opinion that the “razor-thin standoff” is more a product of gerrymandering and voter suppression than it is the will of the voting citizens, much less the population at large. So, for those reasons, I agree that this will be another close election where the clear majority has trouble electing a true representation. But make no mistake, the programs we have, the legislation we see, the policies we endure, and the economy we are witnessing, in no way reflects the wants and needs of the majority of our citizens.

We live in a plutocracy and haven’t been seen as that “shining light on a hill” for quite some time, (if we truly ever were). Anyone who has read Howard Zinn can tell you that it was all a jingoistic fantasy. And anyone who has traveled extensively is aware that the rest of civilization no longer looks to us as some democratic utopia, (which was never the case, anyway), but instead see us more as ‘the’ imperialistic arms dealer to the world. The South American ‘caravan’ that is making it way here is not “yearning to be free”, they’re looking for protection from the player with the biggest guns.

“America- you buy our arms, or you don’t. Either way, you’re going to get ’em.”
Can I get a Yemen?

Bravo on the Uncle Sam straight jacket piece. You hit it on the nail.
As to the interesting fact that opinion polls seem to contradict voting history;
It seems that the sad fact is that over half of our population is so comfortable that they don’t bother to vote, despite what their opinions are. Our government doesn’t operate on opinions, just the votes ma’am. Whether most of us realize or not, we are the inspiration and example to the rest of the world. May God help us all.